Thread: A county idea: Curb immigrant health care

A county idea: Curb immigrant health care
By Ed Fletcher - Bee Staff Writer

Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, September 6, 2007
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B1


Faced with a tight budget and requests for additional law enforcement spending, Sacramento County Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan suggested Wednesday that the county eliminate non-emergency medical care to undocumented immigrants to come up with the money.

"That is not a mandatory service," MacGlashan said afterward. "It's a source of discretionary funding that is available."

In fiscal year 2007-08, the county's Medically Indigent Services Program treated between 2,500 and 4,000 illegal immigrants, costing the county between $1.4 million and $2.3 million.

It's unclear how much support MacGlashan has.

Supervisor Jimmy Yee said he had "some concerns" about cutting the care.

Wednesday's budget hearing was strictly an informational session, with County Executive Terry Schutten stressing the direness of the current budget situation and predicting tens of millions of dollars in red ink down the road.

Supervisors are expected to finalize the county budget by Sept. 14.

After Schutten's comments, county departments pressed their case for more money. Law-and-order requests headlined $11 million in additional spending requests made Wednesday.

Sheriff John McGinness asked for 21 additional deputies. The Probation Department wants more than $1 million to add new supervisory positions. District Attorney Jan Scully wants to boost the countywide crime lab staff. And a collection of court officers collectively asked for $458,000 to start a night court for probation offenders.

"This is going to be tremendously beneficial for our system and therefore the county," Scully said of the night court proposal.

Schutten urged supervisors to hold the line on spending, noting that county finances are tight and next year's situation may be even bleaker. He said the deficit for the 2008-09 budget year could be at least $31 million and likely would require program cuts. The county was able to avoid significant program cuts this year by selling county land in Elk Grove and taking funding away from departments with positions that have been vacant for months, said Linda Foster-Hall, the county's budget officer.

McGinness said he hopes that increased staffing will bring down the crime rate. The additional deputies would be in two-deputy patrol units and would be dispersed over the county's service area. The request would add $2.2 million to county spending.

About the writer:

* The Bee's Ed Fletcher can be reached at (916) 321-1269 or efletcher@sacbee.com.

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/363098.html

This would be a big step in California if they did that. It's going to take the Sacramento people to start saying they won't pay any more taxes to help with the spending. Their wallets can only be tapped so far. Sacramento needs a huge call in campaign.